Overland Park, KS (April 25, 2012) –The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), www.acbsp.org, will offer a Thought Leader Session on Empowering Women at the 2012 ACBSP Annual Conference, June 15-18 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Md.

Three prominent women from the fields of politics, law, and management education comprise a panel for the Thought Leader Session, set for Saturday, June 16 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Each has a story to share about her personal and professional journey and how she was empowered to reach her goals.

Mia Doornaert is a former journalist, policy advisor and speech writer of Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium, and columnist of De Standaard, one of the leading Belgian newspapers. Doornaert has also been active in the defense of press freedom world wide. In 1998-2000 she was the president of the UNESCO Consultative Group on press freedom, and of the jury of the UNESCO World Wide Press Freedom Prize. Before that, she was the president of the International Federation of Journalists (1986-92), the world-wide federation of journalists’ unions, and of the Belgian Journalists’ Association (1983-87). In both cases, she was the first woman elected to that position. In 2003, she was made a Baroness by King Albert II for her work as a journalist and her engagement for press freedom and human rights world wide.

Melynnie Rizvi is senior corporate counsel, Global Employment at Symantec Corporation in Mountain View, California, where she counsels and advises HR professionals and company executives on various employment law issues in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Symantec in July 2011, Rizvi was first an associate (2005-07) and then partner (2007-11) in the Employment Practices Group at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP in San Francisco. Rizvi is a member of the State Bar of California and the Law Society of Alberta, Canada. She holds a bachelor of commerce degree with a specialization in human resources management and a bachelor of laws degree, both from the University of Alberta.

Annette E. Craven, Ph.D. is the past-president of ACBSP, professor of management at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, and managing partner of QPR Associates, LLC. She has a Ph.D. in higher education administration and human communications from the University of Denver, master’s degrees in human relations and adult education from the University of Oklahoma, and a B.S. in business administration from the College of the Ozarks. She is an Illinois-licensed CPA and served as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program Examiner from 2007-2009 and senior examiner in 2011. Under her leadership as president of ACBSP, the Committee for Scholar-Practitioners was formed and the first scholarly journal,The Annual Edition: Recognizing Excellence in Business Education, created. Craven served as co-editor for Volume Two, ACBSP Annual Edition: Managing Business Education in the New Fiscal Reality, released in November 2011. She has many years of experience in higher education governance and strategic planning, assessment, and quality improvement.

Registration is now open for the 2012 ACBSP Annual Conference: "Sustaining Excellence Through Quality Business Education,” June 15-18 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.Register by May 18 to receive the best price.

About ACBSP

ACBSP’s mission is to promote continuous improvement and recognize excellence in the accreditation of business education programs around the world. ACBSP is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as a specialized accreditation agency for business education. ACBSP currently has 1,100 member campuses, 157 of which are located outside of the U.S. Of those campuses, 541 have achieved accreditation and more than 415 are in candidacy for accreditation. Individual members on these campuses now exceed 9,700.